Category: Business

This is a guest post by Jeff Marcell, senior partner with TIP Strategies, Inc. Some 725,000 people live in the City of Seattle. As impressive as that number sounds, it is dwarfed by the fact that Seattle’s metropolitan area, as defined by the US Census Bureau, includes a whopping 3.9 million residents. You can do

This is a guest post by Heidi Lorenzen, vice president of marketing for Accela. Cities are laboratories for democracy where residents can directly access their local elected leaders to make their concerns known. While federal regulation and legislation moves at a seemingly glacial pace, cities have to act nimbly and continuously evolve to maintain a

This is a guest post by Cory Poris-Plasch, Vice President- Customer Success at POLCO Imagine a world where we could hear from not just the vocal few who seem to relish the opportunity to engage the city, but our average citizens, those who are busy with families and jobs but who don’t normally have the time

Income and wealth inequality, exploitative working conditions and displacement are critical issues faced by communities across the country. These challenges require strategies that create both stable employment and access to opportunities for building assets. Local governments have traditionally invested in the dual pathways of entrepreneurship and workforce development to address these issues. Employee ownership of

“Data and technology” was identified as one of the top 10 issues mayors were prioritizing in their 2018 state of the city speeches. It’s easy to see why: data can help cities become more efficient and better able to deliver services and solve problems. Cities large and small are leveraging data and facts to solve

There is nothing new in the world. In ancient times, when the invading hoard is approaching the city, the wise leader sends an emissary through the front gate to parley. In today’s economy, these same tactics can be employed by cities seeking to quickly gain an understanding of what a startup is proposing, how that proposal

This is a guest post by Wendy Weatherford, vice president of corporate communications and marketing for Clear Channel Outdoor Americas. Modern slavery is a billion-dollar industry that exploits 40.3 million victims around the globe. Whether you live in a bustling city, quiet suburb, or rural community, chances are human trafficking is happening right in your

This blog post summarizes a case study from NLC’s Bridging the Urban-Rural Economic Divide report. This post is part of a series about reducing the divide between urban and rural communities. California, the state with the highest urban population density, has a capital city that is largely rural. Eighty five percent of Sacramento’s land area is rural

This is a guest post by Les Richmond, Vice President and Actuary of Build America Mutual (BAM). Credit ratings are the most visible (and sometimes only) independent assessment of the fiscal status of a city’s government – they have a direct impact on borrowing costs and the affordability of infrastructure investments, and they can also

On Thursday, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, the Supreme Court ruled that states and local governments can require vendors with no physical presence in the state to collect sales tax. According to the court, which ruled in a 5-4 decision, “economic and virtual contacts” are enough to create a “substantial nexus” with the state allowing